“Our plan is for next spring - essentially a year from now, spring 2015 - to take the Lansdale tank out of service, do a full complete inspection of the interior and exterior, and repaint both the inside and outside,” Bellitto said.

Around April of 2015, NPWA and the contractor it hires plan to cover the current tower with a shroud similar to “a shower curtain, essentially, around the perimeter of the tank to completely enclose it,” Bellitto said, which would capture any paint, dust, and other debris while the roughly four-month restoration is done.

Since plans must be developed before that contractor is brought on board, Bellitto and his team said, the time is now to start the conversation on what the tank will look like after restoration is done. Bellitto said NPWA plans to have its logo - those four letters flowing into each other - appear on one side of the tank, with the other side free for something more Lansdale-specific.

“We could have played with a lot more scenarios - we could have a nice bright yellow tank - but we’d like to essentially mimic what we’ve seen North Penn Water do with their brand. Since our colors are so close, it just seems to make sense to do that,” Kirchner said.

A decision does not need to be made until fall, Bellitto said, and the current rust color on the tank poses no danger to customers; taking the Lansdale tank out of service would have no noticeable impact on water authority customers once the new tank is in place. Gunsaullus said the materials used in the repainting would likely not chalk or fade the way the current tank coating has - but a brighter white might be more visible to dirt streaking than a light gray or blue, and at the street level the tank will likely be enclosed by chain link fencing that would not allow for any further decorating or branding.

The combined committees brainstormed several possible options during their discussion, for not only the design itself but ways to gather community input and get the word out about the project and potential designs.

EDC member Richard Strahm suggested the water authority could work with both bodies and borough nonprofit Discover Lansdale to pass out information at borough events including monthly First Fridays, and could even develop a tear-off survey in the monthly Discover Lansdale magazine, post a survey on the borough and Discover websites to gather feedback, or even develop an interactive game for residents to, say, throw water balloons into buckets for the design they like the most.

Developing games to gather feedback could be “something fun for First Fridays that get the point across to people, and makes them perhaps stop and look at it a little more. I think we can have a lot of fun with this,” Strahm said.

Other suggestions included looking into whether the logo could be illuminated at night via spotlight, to turn it into a beacon of sorts for the town. Bellitto said there’s likely no technical reason not to do that, and Preston said a balcony atop the tank meant for worker access will also be rehabilitated and could be modified to fit a spotlight - and a solar power system could be used to gather power during the day for the light that would then be drawn from batteries at night.

Once the tank bowl is lifted atop the concrete column on the Franconia tank later this fall, Bellitto and Preston said, the Lansdale members could see how the color and paint scheme there looks in natural sunlight - and EDC Chair Mary Fuller suggested a driving tour to look at other NPWA tanks throughout its service area to see how they look.

The conversation will continue in upcoming joint meetings of EDC and the commission, the next of which will be held at 6:30 p.m. on May 19 at the borough’s Wissahickon Park Building, located at Main Street and Lakeview Drive near Wissahickon Park. For more information or meeting agendas and materials visit www.Lansdale.org or follow @LansdalePA on Twitter.